Map shows global warming at a glance

Scientists have drawn up a 'climate change map' that charts how global warming will hit different parts of the world over the next century.


Shades of red and yellow indicate how warming and natural climatic variations will impinge on average temperatures.

The darkest crimson tones are reserved for the Congo basin and parts of the Amazonian rainforest, indicating maximum temperature rises of up to 11 degrees C. Ironically, the biggest emitters in the Western world – the US and Europe, as well as Australia – will be least affected, with temperature rises of 6-7 degrees on average.

India and Central Asia, which fall into the same band, will also be spared the worst impacts, according to the map drawn up by scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

But it is the most vulnerable regions such as Africa that will be worst hit, the scientists predict. The map covers most of the black continent in an ominous red, indicating rises of 7-8, and in some places up to 11 degrees. Higher latitudes including Canada, Russia and the Arctic are also strongly affected.

‘We hope it will help policy makers gain a quick overview of the scientific facts without getting lost in the detail,’ said Michele Battig, who led the study, published in the Geophysical Research Letters.

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